Animal Crossing has been successful as Nintendo’s long-running cozy life sim franchise, with the most recent entry being 2020’s New Horizons. When it comes to the Animal Crossing series, much of the gameplay involves small tasks and stress-free scenarios. However, one Easter egg found in New Horizons and its predecessor, New Leaf, adds a strange layer of spookiness to the seemingly cheerful game.
In these two Animal Crossing entries, players can actually experience a bizarre alien encounter. It’s a jarring shake-up to the franchise’s usual happy-go-lucky formula. What’s even stranger, though, is that this mysterious alien presence in Animal Crossing puts the series in the same boat as the most unlikely partner possible: Silent Hill.
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Animal Crossing and Silent Hill Both Have a History of Alien Encounters
How to Encounter an Alien in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Players must have a TV in their character’s home to encounter the alien.
- If players turn on the TV at 3:33 AM on a Saturday, a broadcast comes through the TV static.
- The broadcast is of a small humanoid alien with glowing red eyes.
The alien is delivering a spoken message during the broadcast, but it’s unclear what exactly is being said. As of now, there is no word on whether the message can be deciphered. Animal Crossing and horror don’t usually mix, but the 3:33 AM broadcast is a fun and unexpected moment that has taken a lot of players by surprise.
Silent Hill’s Aliens Are a Franchise Tradition
- Silent Hill
- Silent Hill 2
- Silent Hill 3
- Silent Hill: Origins
- Silent Hill: Homecoming
- Silent Hill: The Arcade
- Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Many Silent Hill games have featured spoof endings known as UFO Endings. These goofy endings are loved by a lot of fans. However, since these specific endings are merely fun jokes, they aren’t considered canon. Because of the bizarre nature of Silent Hill games, aliens would honestly fit right in. An alien-based Silent Hill game could be downright terrifying, but Konami’s horror series and Animal Crossing may want to keep these extraterrestrial Easter eggs simply as fun hidden gems.
The types of aliens featured in both franchises are the Greys. This alien is the stereotypical type that has a large head, bulbous eyes, and a small body.
Silent Hill and Animal Crossing Making Their Aliens Canon May Be Easier Said Than Done
It would be interesting to see how these two vastly different franchises could bring aliens into the mix, but doing so in an effective way could be tricky. Since Silent Hill uses aliens as a punchline, players may find it hard to take them seriously if they were made part of the canon. Silent Hill‘s monsters are horrifying, and a traditional alien may not have the same scare factor.
With Animal Crossing, introducing alien visitors could actually work better than it would in Silent Hill. Aliens may not play a major role in the future of Animal Crossing, but the next game could feature a Halloween event that brings a fun alien invasion to the village. One funny twist would be for UFOs to come and abduct the town’s cow Villagers, since that’s such a common alien trope. Because of its lighthearted nature, Animal Crossing has more room to have fun with this type of canon change.
Silent Hill 2 has another famous ending known as the Dog Ending. This ending reveals that a Shiba Inu has been controlling the events of the story from a secret control room the entire time.
Silent Hill and Animal Crossing’s Alien Easter Eggs Are a Fun Connection
There are very few instances where Silent Hill and Animal Crossing are mentioned in the same sentence, and the fact that they are connected via aliens is hilariously intriguing. Aliens may never become legitimate parts of either franchise’s lore, but this unexpected and strange shared feature in Animal Crossing and Silent Hill is pretty entertaining.
